I’m back in the office today after a whirlwind trip down to Austin for the SXSW Interactive Festival, and I’m getting LOTS done since most of the office is still down there. This quote from Jason Fried of 37Signals really struck a cord…

Interruption is the enemy of productivity; a fragmented day is not a productive day.

After sitting on sessions on everything from The Contextual Web to Wireframing 2.0 to Outsourcing Facebook to Bangalore, it was Fried’s presentation 10 Things We’ve Learned at 37Signals that resonated with me the most. True to form, he succinctly and enthusiastically shared his advice on collaboration, decisions, progress, morale, and not sweating the small stuff.

Here’s what he had to say:

1. Start every project with these questions:

Why are we doing this?
What problem are we solving?
Is this useful?
Will this change behavior?
Are we adding value?
Is there an easier way?
Is this actually worth it?

2. Focus on what you’re good at
3. Err on the side of simple
4. Invest in what doesn’t change (Google knows people will always want fast relevant results)
5. Keep projects small and new
6. Do three things in one week rather than one thing in three weeks
7. Use Passive rather than Active communication (another words, don’t inturrupt people when they are working)
8. Make tiny decisions and break problems down into atomic particles; when you make tiny decisions, you can’t make big mistakes
9. Morale feeds on progress
10. Everything you do should matter

I was amazed how often I heard the same advice repeated over and over by other speakers throughout the conference, but not in as nearly an engaging and direct way. There was lots of talk of agile development and iterative design cycles, but Fried employed language and style that everyone on the production team could relate to. These tips will definitely make their way into our process at LevelTen.

Category: General Thoughts, Girl About World, SXSW

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